The Parliamentary Hearing Committee has decided to investigate the credentials of Samim Miya Ansari, the chairman nominee of the National Muslim Commission, following complaints that his citizenship and academic certificates were dubious, and that he was nominated to the post while he was also a member of a political party.

A meeting of the House committee, after analysing the complaints, decided on Tuesday to defer the hearing scheduled for Wednesday until the investigation is concluded.

Four complaints have been registered at the committee claiming that Ansari’s citizenship and academic credentials are forged and therefore he is undeserving of the position for which he has been nominated.

One of the complainants has claimed that Ansari was born in India.

The citizenship certificate presented by Ansari to the committee is issued by the District Administration Office, Kathmandu.

Similarly, he has failed to submit the character certificates of school leaving examination and the intermediate examination.

Though Ansari, coordinator of National Muslim Alliance, has mark-sheets and character certificates of the bachelor’s level, he only has submitted mark-sheets of the lower grades, according to a member of the hearing committee.

There are also complaints that Ansari was a member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party when he was nominated for the post.

According to Muslim Commission Act 2018, one should not be a member of any party at the time of appointment to qualify as a chairman or a member of the commission.

Purna Kumari Subedi, a member of the committee, said as some of the documents tabled for appointment were dubious, the committee first wanted to be clear on the issue before conducting the hearing.

The committee will also ask the Kathmandu District Administration Office to clarify about the citizenship and inquire the Constitutional Council about his academic credentials, a member of the House committee told the Post. “Similarly, it will direct the Election Commission to find out and respond if he is a member of any party,” the member said.

The erstwhile CPN-UML in May 2018 had nominated Ansari as the party’s central working committee. He retained the position when the CPN-UML merged with the then CPN (Maoist Centre) to form the Nepal Communist Party.

The Post found Ansari’s name listed in the 441-member central working committee of the ruling NCP.

“We will take further decision once we get probe reports from the three bodies—district administration, Election Commission and Constitutional Council,” Subedi told the Post.

A January 20 meeting of the Constitutional Council had decided to recommend Ansari in the Muslim Commission. The meeting had also recommended names for other four constitutional commissions.

The council’s recommendations have been opposed by the main opposition, Nepal Congress, because they were made by a meeting in which  the leader from the opposition party was not present.

The NC has been boycotting the hearing process to protest the move of the council to make appointments without its consent.

Despite reservations from the NC, the hearing committee on February 3 started the hearing process of chairpersons of the five constitutional commissions.